I have to begin by saying that I am no expert. As a matter of fact, I am about as far from an expert as I could be in this area. That being said, I have come a long way over the years. Some googling could probably take you to some really great thoughts by people who are so much better at this than myself. However, maybe I can save you a little bit of time by sharing some of my rookie lessons learned so that you can push ahead on your journey.

First, as I mentioned in Intoxicated by Connectivity there was a transition that needed to happen for me before the practical strategies for disconnection would even be useful. If you are not at that place of peace and trust yet then I would urge you to stay there wrestling with those truths and praying for that kind of peace. Without it, nothing here will be of any lasting help.

I’ve learned that in most areas of my life I hate the idea of a routine checkup. I hate going to the doctor. Period. I hate it worse when I am going and do not feel like I absolutely have to go. The idea of getting a checkup when I feel good… just to have the doctor tell me that I do, in fact, feel good seems murderously painful.

Unfortunately, I have the same feelings about taking a car for a ‘routine checkup.’ Why, when everything seems to be working so well, should I go and endure the saga of an auto shop? Then, inevitably, although everything was working fine, there ends up being some $800 problem that they found in the nick of time.

I’ve noticed that these themes permeate my entire life during many seasons. I easily get caught up in routine and habit and then notice that months (or maybe years) have passed without me stopping to evaluate those habits.

Carol, would you share with us a little bit about your experience with open adoption? Maybe you could share with us how it happened and how the journey has been for your family?

Years ago, prior to adopting our own children, a good friend of mine named Mary adopted a baby and had an extremely open relationship with the birth parents and their families. It always made me very uncomfortable to hear about the birth mother staying overnight with them on a monthly basis, celebrating holidays and birthdays together, and even vacationing together. I didn’t have any concrete reason for doubting the wisdom of this arrangement except for all the horror stories that had been broadcast in the media.

Aside from the bad press, it just seemed to put the adoptive family in a position of significant vulnerability for no apparent benefit. To the contrary, Mary would expound on the wonderful benefits of having her son’s birth family involved in their lives. She used to say, “It provides more people to love our son as much as we (she and her husband) do”. I would just smile and think to myself, “Ok, sounds nice, but really?”

The following was a sermon preached at Crossings Community Church on July 7, 2013.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again this week. If you’re looking for a church with a pastor who’s incredibly political, who rides these political waves up and down, that’s not me. You’re at the wrong place if that’s what you’re looking for. However, you do have to live under a rock to not be aware that marriage is flooding our media right now.

Everything, whether you get on the Internet or watch the news, because of Supreme Court decisions and discussions it’s there in front of you, regardless of where you are. I don’t even watch the news, and I’m well aware of this discussion that’s taking place. I think it demands of us, for those of us who follow Jesus, those of us who look for truth in this Book above all else, a re-centering, or a re-grounding, on what this Book says.

What can happen to us through life, as there are other people making definitions on biblical terms, it can get very confusing for us. We can quickly sort of seep away from the definitions of what we see in the Bible, and we can become desensitized to the definitions we see in our culture at large. So I think it is incredibly important for us to come back and re-center, re-ground ourselves in what the Bible says.

One of the greatest pictures of the beauty of the gospel is marriage.

So rather than sharing with you any of my opinion on any of the political or news or Supreme Court decisions this week, what I want to share with you this morning is why I believe strongly that we are in a day, because of what has happened, that is ready for spiritual revival. We have an opportunity, because of what’s going on in our culture and in our government, to be able to exalt and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in ways that will be radically life-transforming to other people in ways our culture and society have not seen before.

Amidst that, if you want to call it a silver lining, that’s fine, but I want to share with you this morning why I’m excited about the opportunities all of this brings. If you look back and study and think about the big picture of history for a minute, if you look back at the apostle Paul and all of the apostles and what happened with the church and how the church exploded… Most historians believe around five million Christians existed by the year AD 300. That is pretty amazing.

You have Paul and all of the apostles who are taking this message of Christianity out, and why it was able to take fire, literally, amidst the culture are two things. First was their method, the way they lived life and engaged in conversations. We’ve talked about this many times. Paul in Acts 17, going and having conversations with people and speaking the language of the culture and proclaiming the gospel of Jesus. That’s a big part of it.

The other part of it was they were completing a story that the culture, by and large, was already aware of. See, most people they were communicating the gospel to, whether Jew or not, were aware of the Jewish story, the nation of Israel. So what they came doing was giving the rest of the story, which many already knew. That added fire and flame to the gospel effectiveness of the apostles and of Paul.

Then, in AD 300, something very interesting happens. Constantine, a political ruler, is impacted by the message of Christianity. In that personal impact of Constantine, he adopts Christianity and makes it a state religion. What happens then, as we look at history, is because Christianity became a state religion in AD 300, everyone begins to believe they’re Christians.

So there’s this watering down of the life-changing message of the gospel. It becomes just a religion. Christianity becomes a cultural and social system of dos and don’ts. It’s the way everybody lived. “Because we are a part of this state, this political system, therefore, we’re Christians; therefore, we live in this way.” When you begin to walk in life that way, you are taking out and removing the life-changing power of the gospel, the relational blessing of living a life knowing Jesus.

That still exists today in many places around the world: cultural faith. Catholicism is huge. There are many cultural Catholics who live in a certain region, and everybody believes because they live in that region they are Catholic, just because they live there. Really, the birth of this cultural Christianity happened back then in AD 300.

Good question. Why in the world would I start this site now? The short answer may be that I don’t completely know. However there are a couple things I do know. God has been stirring in me… creating a tension between my current state and a future destination. It feels like a lot of different itches that I can’t reach well enough to scratch.

I’ve been preaching through a series titled, “Imago Dei.” My prayer has been that each person would understand how God created them uniquely to contribute to his great work in the world. As I began to wrestle with these truths in my heart I began realizing that there were many unique ways in which God created me that I was not leveraging for his kingdom. So, this site is the first step in that direction. There are definitely more questions than answers in my mind right now but I want to step forward in faith and obedience.

About Me

I am a Christ-follower, husband, father, friend, and pastor who loves watching baseball, playing volleyball with my daughters, training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with my son, and spending quantity time with my bride. Read More…